Look up this week and see a whole bunch of planets.
Just after sunset, looking west (mostly), planets
Mercury,
Venus,
Saturn, and
Jupiter
will all be visible to the unaided eye simultaneously.
If you have a telescope, planets
Uranus and
Neptune can also be seen.
In order up from the horizon, the lineup this week will be
Venus (the brightest),
Mercury,
Saturn,
Neptune, Uranus, and
Jupiter (second brightest).
It doesn't matter where on
Earth
you live because this early evening
planet parade will be visible through
clear skies all around the globe.
The planets will appear to be
nearly in a line because they all orbit the
Sun in nearly the same plane: the
ecliptic.
The
featured image shows a
similar planet parade that occurred in 2022,
captured over the
Sydney Opera House in southern
Australia.
Although
visible all week, the planets will be most
easily seen together this weekend.